[doctor_eval]

Right, it was better when only those who deserved it could fly or get on the internet.

And the definition of “deserved it” is “having more money than everyone else”.

Who cares if that money was made by exploiting people or selling shonky goods or breaking promises or tricking people or otherwise being an asshole?

Go on, take that flight. Buy that shiny thing. You worked hard for that money. You’re better than they are. You deserve it.

/S

[lynx23]

I disagree. What made eternal september so painful was lack of intelligence, not lack of money. It is only a correlation that poor people also tend to be less educated. I don't care if my chatroom is flooded by people with just a little money, but I feel it very much if average IQ drops by 40 points, suddenly.

[Cthulhu_]

IQ points only indicate how good people are at doing IQ tests (and that they actually did one), it doesn't tell anything else. And looking down on people with perceived low IQ is elitist and classist.

[spoiler]

I agree with you that IQ tests are kinda useless. Also ,I think its a misconception that IQ tests test intelligence. Taking the test depends on many external and internal factors. Mood, how rested and sated you are, how comfortable you are while taking the test. Those things in turn affect your patience and your concentration, and ability to resist environmental distractions, etc, etc.

Often times experience can affect these IQ tests. One can easily warm up to IQ tests; I know you're not supposed to be able to, but it's totally doable. Do two ones in a row, and after learning the answers to the first one, you'll do loads better on the second one (after a break, so your concentration isn't depleted if you struggle with that).

[noduerme]

Oh, /s indeed.

No, no. Getting on the internet wasn't based on having money for it. It was based on figuring out how to wire a 300 bps modem to a phone receiver. And to do that you needed a bit of a brain. And you likely weren't going to use it to share photos of your boo and shop for your next sugar-whatever, or share your dumb recipes. If you were capable of doing it, you might have valid opinions about what was going on in the world that would be worth debating or comparing with others... and anyway, there wasn't enough bandwidth for you to be both a blank, ignorant serf and to have your brain hijacked by masses of political operatives. No, the economy of scale just hadn't developed yet to deem the opinions of each individual member of the uneducated mass to be worth the effort of advertising to [each one] separately at the time.

[edit] Also, I'm assuming you can afford now to be on the internet and to take flights, so why can't you simply show the same amount of class that people showed when it was more difficult for them and they had to act a bit better to do so? Would that be too much to ask? Or is being a slob and intellectual degenerate some sort of proof that you're morally superior by way of being poor and not needing material things? You do realize that no matter what era we live in, the rich have nicer, shinier toys, right? What I meant by "class" was, as I said, the way you choose to comport yourself; it has nothing whatsoever to do with money.

[doctor_eval]

You seem to be taking the position that somehow privilege or “class” can be improved by creating artificial barriers to entry, but I can tell you for a fact that even back in the dim dark days of dialup BBS, long before the IP protocol, there were assholes and trolls online. Technical skills only made them more arrogant.

A lack of class and comportment online is not new, and the shiny accoutrements and signifiers of “class” can as easily hide malign intent as demonstrate worth. (also: people shared all kinds of crap online, even then).

If you limit the internet to people who can wire up a 300 baud modem, then you’ll just end up with trolls who can solder.

I’m happy that everyone can fly, and can get online. How else are they going to learn about the world? I don’t have to hang out where they hang out if I don’t want to. That’s why I’m on HN and not FB. But they have every right to take advantage of these things, and I still have faith in humanity.

Anyway, without travel and information, how else are they going to learn that the world is filled with artificial barriers intended to keep them in their place?

[sebzim4500]

I can see how the barrier to getting onto the internet might have been more intellectual than financial.

I am utterly at a loss about what you think the intellectual barrier to buying a plane ticket is.

[doctor_eval]

Are you responding to me? Because I am responding to this:

> The world was better when there was a higher barrier to do things like, e.g., buying a plane ticket or getting on the internet.

[sebzim4500]

Yeah sorry, I meant to respond to the other guy